Sofa.com | A History of Culture in 100 Sofas (and other furniture) - 1. Salvador Dali’s Mae West lips sofa (1937) A History of Culture in 100 Sofas (and other furniture) - 1. Salvador Dali’s Mae West lips sofa (1937) 19.12.2014 by Andrew Nixon A History of Culture in 100 Sofas (and other furniture) - 1. Salvador Dali’s Mae West lips sofa (1937) Tweet Here at sofa.com we believe that not enough attention has been paid by scholars to the role of sofas , chairs and beds in the history of culture – after all, we spend a huge proportion of our lives in one or other of them. That’s why we’ve invited Andrew Nixon, editor of the leading culture blog The Dabbler , to create a new series looking at iconic, influential and unique items of furniture that have made our culture what it is. In this first instalment, he examines a sofa designed by the surrealist artist Salvador Dali...

“Those who do not want to imitate anything, produce nothing”, said Salvador Dali, once. When it came to producing furniture designs, what the great surrealist and self-publicist liked to imitate most was the face of the Hollywood bombshell Mae West. At the Dali Museum in Figures, Spain, there is an entire room composed to look like the actress. If you peep through a specially-angled lens you’ll see Mae’s visage framed in a wavy-blonde doorway, with two photographs that cleverly make the eyes, a nose-shaped fireplace, and finally the plump, red, pouting sofa of the mouth. And what a sofa it is. Never mind the floppy clocks and long-legged elephants, I’d argue that the Mae West seat is Salvador Dali’s finest work, being audacious, witty, aesthetically-pleasing and instantly recognizable. It’s surely his most famous object (except perhaps for the gloriously silly lobster telephone ) and while ‘iconic’ is an overused word, it fits here. The face of Mae West Mae West was just Dali’s sort of muse: curvaceous, bawdy, highly controversial and a lot of fun.

As a comic writer and actress in movies she was notorious for pushing the boundaries of decency and frequently fell foul of the censor. This of course only helped increase her fame (she once quipped: "I believe in censorship. I made a fortune out of it") and her popularity, especially with the male audience: in World War II Allied aircrew called their lifejackets "Mae Wests" due to their resemblance, when inflated, to her buxom figure. It is hardly surprising then, that the mischievous and erotica-obsessed Salvador Dali was drawn to her. In 1934-35 he created a painting based on a photograph of the actress called The Face of Mae West which may be used as a surrealistic apartment. In it, West’s facial features became elements in a living room: the eyes were framed pictures, the nose was a fireplace and the lips a voluptuous sofa. At that point however it was just a surreal painting rather than an actual design. A surrealist paradise The chance for Dali to turn his sofa idea into physical reality came a few years later, when he was working under the patronage of the wealthy collector and poet Edward James.

James was a great enthusiast for the surrealist movement and an important figure in it – there’s even a portrait by Magritte of him looking into a mirror at the back of his own head. At the time when Dali visited the 1936 International Surrealist Exhibition in London, James happened to be in the process of renovating Monckton House on his West Dean estate in Sussex. Discovering that Dali was rather broke, James offered to pay him a salary in return for his entire artistic output for a year, and together the two of them began working on turning Monckton House into a surrealist interior designer’s paradise. The Mae West sofa - based on Dali’s painting - arose from their collaboration. Surrealist interor at Monckton House The £62k sofa There were actually five sofas produced in 1938, all of which James kept, with ownership passing to the Edward James Foundation after his death in 1984. Two were subsequently sold and when one of those was auctioned by Christie’s in 2003 it fetched an impressive £62,140.

The successful bidder was anonymous – but whoever they are, they’re unlikely to be using it for sitting on to watch the telly. Despite the inviting-looking red satin fabric, the Mae West sofa is not, apparently, very comfy: Dali claimed that he partly based the design on a cluster of particularly uncomfortable rocks near the seaside resort of Cadaques. So, as visually splendid as it might be, lacking any practical use in the home I don’t suppose Dali’s Mae West lips piece would qualify for the sofa.com sofa portfolio . But for its audacity, its perfect encapsulation of the funny side of the Surrealist movement, and its demonstration of just how far you can separate a piece of furniture’s value from its function, it is worthy of its place as the opening entry in our History of Culture in 100 Sofas (and other furniture). Mae West room at the Dali Museum A History of Culture in 100 Sofas (and other furniture) - 1.

Salvador Dali’s Mae West Lips sofa What: Wood and red satin sofa, 86.5 x 183 x 81.5 cm When: 1937 Why it’s culturally significant: The high point of cheeky surrealist wit Next: John and Yoko's 'Lie-In' Protest Bed Dalí the designer | Salvador Dalí | Espace Dalí Dalí the designer DALÍ DESIGNER Dalí discovers new ways to express "his" surrealistic ideal within the large scope of decorative arts. The ESPACE DALÍ exhibits several objects and pieces of furniture that were imagined by Dalí. A complete artist, Dalí was also a talented designer who created various objects and pieces of furniture like the famous Mae West Lips Sofa. In 1936, Dalí already thought that every portrait could be transformed into living room furniture. According to Dalí, art should fill all aspects of life. He became interested in furniture after having met Jean Michel Franck, the famous interior decorator.

Around 1934-1935, Dalí used a photographic portrait of the actress Mae West, to paint a gouache picture called : The Face of Mae West which may be used as a surrealistic apartment. The masterpiece that was created from the picture is the Mae West Lips Sofa that is on exhibit here, as is the Dalí and Gala's Vis-à-Vis sofa. Other projects dating back to 1935-1937 are The Lamp with Drawers and the Floor Lamp with Crutches (sketched in 1936-1937). Several of his works come from his paintings. In his Woman with a Head of Roses painting, 1935, Dalí depicts a couple of women surrounded by very strange furniture : — a chair with legs fitted with small shoes and an armrest like a human arm. — a low table with a leg that looks like a long arm with a hand on one end and a foot on the other. An egg placed on the table is one of Dalí's favorite symbols : a mineral reminder of a former, intra-uterine life and rebirth.

These elements are part of a setting created in 1990-1992, Dalí and Gala's Vis-à-Vis living room. It is a three-dimensional reproduction of some of the Master's projects dating from 1935-1937, a period when Dalí's formal vocabulary was no longer restricted to painting. These bronze objects are displayed in a manner that reproduces a small living room in which we find other creations : — The Lamp with Drawers and the Floor Lamp with Crutches (made according to sketches drawn in 1936-1937) . In these sketches, Dalí made separate studies of each corresponding lampshade. The draped fabric is very carefully designed, despite its apparent simplicity, since it clearly evokes the torero's gesture of crossed-hands as he waves the muleta in front of the bull before dealing the death-blow. — A floor lamp shaped in the position of Vénus de Milo, which for Dalí represents absolute perfection, one of his favorite themes.

The emblematic piece in the living room is the Vis-à-Vis, or the Confident, well-named for its shape and purpose, which is to encourage private conversation and exchange: as it happens, the surrealistic lovers' conversation par excellence, the one between Dalí and Gala. Upholstered in "shocking pink" fabric, designed by Elsa Schiaparelli for the Mae West Lips Sofa, it demonstrates Dalí's skillfulness (as if it needed to be demonstrated!) at subtly changing the derogative connotation attached to this furniture style that was in fashion during Napoleon III's reign, and which was hardly known in the 30's. In about 1934-1935, Dalí used a photographic portrait of the actress Mae West, to paint a gouache picture called : The Face of Mae West which may be used as a surrealistic apartment. In the painting, Dalí designed the face like a room where each facial feature was an element in a living room.

Example: the nose became a fireplace, the lips a sofa, the eyes were pictures… In 1936-1937, a life-sized lips sofa was made: the fabric was the exact same color as the lipstick worn by the actress. Jean Michel Franck created the first Mae West Lips Sofa for Dalí. Share this page Dali's Surrealist Furniture in Shanghai | The Dalí Universe Dali's Surrealist Furniture in Shanghai Dali's Surrealist Furniture in Shanghai Wednesday, 2015, October 21 Three weeks after opening, the exhibition on the Bund18 in Shanghai, China has already attracted over 12,000 visitors , since opening on September 26th. Despite the seasonal typhoon and six day Chinese Golden Week holiday, the exhibition has progressively seen increasing visitor numbers. Amongst the many artworks on display, there are colourful examples of surrealist furniture like the famous Mae West Lips Sofa. In 1936, Dali already thought that every portrait could be transformed into living room furniture. He became interested in furniture after having met Jean Michel Franck, the famous interior decorator.

One of the highlights of the exhibition was the famous red love-seat sofa inspired by the sensuous lips of the actress Mae West. The sofa reverses Dalí’s usual paranoiac-critical method of attempting to see images within objects. Dalí began his point of reference with an actual image, the Mae West’s sensual lips, and created a functional object. The actress was renowned more for her voluptuous figure and her risqué one-liners than for her acting skills, and Dalí, with his great skill for publicity and maintaining his place in the public eye, paid homage to her with this inspired and original sofa. The first sofa was constructed in Paris in 1936, under Dalí's supervision, based on his original sketch. The upholstery fabric was in Elsa Schiapparelli's "shocking pink". Such is the popularity of this piece of furniture, that it has become instantly recognisable and has been copied many times since by mainstream furniture-makers. Other projects dating back to 1935-1937 are ‘The Lamp with Drawers’ and the ‘Floor Lamp with Crutches ‘(1936-1937).

These mixed- media objects are displayed in a manner that reproduces a small living room in which we find other creations such as the Lamp with Drawers and the Floor Lamp with Crutche. In these sketches, Dali made separate studies of each corresponding lampshade. The draped fabric is very carefully designed, to show clear fluid lines. The emblematic piece in the living room is the Vis-à-Vis, or the Confident, well-named for its shape and purpose, which is to encourage private conversation and exchange: as it happens, the surrealistic lovers' conversation par excellence, the one between Dali and Gala. Upholstered in "shocking pink" fabric, designed by Elsa Schiaparelli for the Mae West Lips Sofa, it demonstrates Dali's skillfulness (as if it needed to be demonstrated!) at subtly changing the derogative connotation attached to this furniture style that was in fashion during Napoleon III's reign, and which was hardly known in the 30's.

Salvador Dali Lips Sofa | China Huateng Furniture factory produce quality modern classic furniture Salvador Dali Lips Sofa 1) Covered with high quality fabric or leather, wooden frame 2) High quality foam inner, UK or CA fire-proof is also available 3) Professional manufacture experience and artisan craftsmanship 4) Upholstery and color can be customized 5) Elegant design and graceful shape Ltd Product name: Salvador Dali Lips Sofa, Modern Style Sofa, Leisure Sofa, Relax Sofa, Leather Lip Sofa, Fabric Lip Sofa Item code:HT-C911 Salvador Dali in 1970 Dalí inspired by the sexy lips of a great Hollywood actress, then he created the lip-shaped sofa which is based on Salvador Dali's famous Mae West sofa of 1936. This lip-smacking reinterpretation of the 1970's sofa now becomes a part of the Royal Dalí Collection of the European Art Foundation. The sofa can be covered with high quality fabric or leather, available in eye-catching color, such as red, orange, purple, and so on. You may also like: The remarks of Salvador Dali Lips Sofa : How much?

About Salvador Dali Lips Sofa replies : Thanks for the inquiry about our Salvador Dali Lips Sofa. This sofa is one of popular lips sofa in our factory, and also we've the same style one seater sofa, two seater sofas and 3 seaters sofa are available, the price is between USD100-500/pc as per your order quantity and materials special request. The remarks of Salvador Dali Lips Sofa : si necesito saber medidas i precio About Salvador Dali Lips Sofa replies : Thanks for your inquiry about our Salvador Dali Lips Sofa! This lips sofa is one of our popular furniture, our factory also make the same style lip sofas loveseat and single chair, welcome you view our website usually. Best Regards! 12 Most Creative Sofas (cool sofas, cool couches) - ODDEE 12 Most Creative Sofas 1 Pixel Sofa The fabric for the Pixel Sofa has been picked up by Danish manufacturer Kvadrat, based off of a concept by Cristian Zuzunaga, a Royal College of Art graduate. The contemporary couch is sure to grab everyone's attention by virtue of its wide spectrum of colors.

2 Swimming Pool Sofa This intriguing concept sofa design was made for an advertisement campaign of Piscine Castiglione, a swimming pool design firm. 3 Bocca Sofa The iconic 1970 lip-shaped sofa is based on Salvador Dali's famous Mae West sofa of 1936. The erotic lips of this great Hollywood actress inspired Dalí. A special installation by the master shows the image of the face of May West. It's available only in red, of course. 4 Coliseum Sofa Created in the shape of the famous Roman Coliseum, this sofa seems like a confortable rest place for gladiators. 5 Coffin Sofa Call them coffins or couches, this pieces of furniture are worth $4,500 each. Designed using recycled 18 gauge steel coffins; the raw material was gathered from local funeral homes based in Southern California. Against the health and safety law that doesn't allow funeral homes to resell used coffins, these coffins were sold to public as the idea of recycling sound quite interesting. They cannot be used for burial purpose.

6 Tiger/Cow Sofa Rodolfo Rocchetti of "Tappezzeria Rocchetti", a master upholsterer from Rome, made this incredibly creative pieces of furniture. 7 The Double Decker Sofa Where do you want to sit? Napoleon versus Napoleon 1999 , by Kuno Nuessli in collaboration with Sven-Anwar Bibi. 8 This fun couch made of stuffed animals is displayed at one Harrods store. 9 Sila, The Yoga sofa The word Sila is a yoga expression, which means to sit cross-legged. The design intends to bring the tranquility of meditation to a modern, dynamic environment. Sila was created by Eridani Saleh with the desire to create a piece of furniture that is grand and dramatic, which represents the solidity of traditional construction and practice while offering a playfulness and new type of relaxation. 10 Wave Seat Sofa Remember the story about Goldilocks and the 3 bears? While the bears were out, she helped her way into their house trying everything until she found the perfect fit. In hindsight she was on to something. We all want products designed custom just for us.

The Wave Seat , by Jung Hoon Rhee, eludes to this old axiom and makes it possible thru the magic of nanotubes. 11 Songololo Sofa The Songololo Sofa was created by Haldane Martin, a south african furniture design company based in Cape Town. Their furniture pays close attention to its sustainability, using green materials and processes whenever possible. 12 Groovy Banana Yohanan Siskindovich's rocking couch design looks almost as fun as its wildly entertaining name, Groovy Banana . Siskindovich throws in the ol' "magazine rack" bonus feature, but we'd also shove blankets, books, dog toys, remotes, or even younger siblings in there--bring 'em along for the ride. A roll-up pod pad sits atop the Banana as to provide the utmost comfort whilst you rock.

From the Web Salvador Dali | Lisa's History Room Lisa's History Room where the past is always present Feeds: Posted in PEOPLE , Phillipe Halsman , Salvador Dali , tagged Dali Atomicus , Phillipe Halsman , Salvador Dali , Surrealism on October 26, 2009 | Leave a Comment » "Dalí Atomicus" a 1948 collaboration by Spanish artist Salvador Dalí and LIFE magazine photographer Phillipe Halsman After meeting in New York in 1941, surrealist artist Salvador Dalí and Latvian-born photographer Phillipe Halsman began a three-decade partnership. The most notable and iconic of their projects is this playful tableau, “Dalí Atomicus,” in which Dalí, his canvas, furniture, cats, and water all appear suspended in air. It took 28 takes to complete the photograph, each time throwing cats, water, and the chair up in the air. The canvases were suspended by wire and, of course, Dalí had to jump each time. According to Halsman, everyone involved in the project was exhausted at the end – except the cats.

It was 1948 then and the world was afraid of nuclear war. Dalí was in his Nuclear Mysticism stage and obsessing over the atom. Initially, he and Halsman had considered blowing up a chicken and photographing it, but nixed it – for the obvious PR reasons. Share this: Posted in Adolf Hitler , Coco Chanel , Duke and Duchess of Windsor, the , Jackie Kennedy , John F.

Kennedy , Kennedys, the , PEOPLE , Salvador Dali , tagged Adolf Hitler , biographies of women , biographies of women designers , Coco Chanel , Dallas , Diana Mitford , Elsa Schiaparelli , Elsie de Wolfe , France , French haute couture , french women nazi collaborators photos , Gabrielle Chanel , Great Britain , Jackie Kennedy in Chanel , JFK assassination , Kennedys , King Edward VIII , King George VI , Mona Bismarck , Nazi sympathizers , Oswald Mosley , Salvador Dali , the Duke and Duchess of Windsor , the Nazis , the Windsor Set , Wallis Warfield Simpson , Winston Churchill on September 29, 2009 | 12 Comments » Wallis Warfield (Simpson) marries the former King Edward VIII of Britain on June 3, 1937, in France, after he gave up the British throne to be with her. Wallis Warfield Simpson was an American divorcee. For the King to have married her and tried to install her as his Queen would have precipitated a constitutional crisis in Great Britain....The wedding day dawned bright and sunny. It was Wallis' third wedding; her dress was not white but blue.

Blue was also the mood. The day before the wedding, the former king's brother, the new British king, George VI, sent Edward a letter granting him and Wallis new titles: the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. The titles were hollow; there was no dominion of Windsor to rule. Even worse: the King's letter contained a bomb - the former king, now titled the Duke, despite his abdication of the throne, could continue to "hold and enjoy...the title, style or attribute of Royal Highness," but his bride, the Duchess, could not, nor could any of their offspring. She, though a duchess, was denied what her sister-in-laws would enjoy - that her name would be preceded by the magic initials 'H.R.H.' At her entrance, no women had to curtsey, no men to bow. She would not be referred to as "Her Highness" but with the lower form of "Her Grace." "What a damnable wedding present!" Windsor shouted upon reading the King's letter. (Bryan III, J. and Murphy, Charles J.V., The Windsor Story.

New York: Dell, 1979.) In 1937, after King Edward VIII had given up the British throne to marry his American divorcee, Wallis Warfield Simpson, the two tiny, trim party animals were exiled to France, where they were doomed to live a life of idle nothingness. They were given the new but hollow titles of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. Accustomed to a lifetime of adulation and privilege yet denied a kingdom, the Duke (and the Duchess), set about creating an imaginary realm of their own that would given them the validation they craved as royals. This new kingdom: “…was a region whose borders were outlined in society pages, peopled mostly by glamorous nobodies lucky enough to have been born into wealth. It was an ornamental place, whose citizens, according to Andrew Bolton, the curator of ”Blithe Spirit” [a past costume exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum], were unsurpassed ”in the beauty, elegance and craftsmanship” of their dress. For self-indulgence, they were also hard to beat.” The people who congregated around the Duke and Duchess were dubbed the “Windsor set.” They were all-consumed with the photographic image.

“They arranged those lives to suit the lens. Voluntarily estranged from the real aristocracy, the Duke of Windsor, with the aid of his wife, the former Wallis Warfield Simpson, set up a parallel court composed of people like Elsie de Wolfe, the interior decorator and social arbiter; Mona Bismarck, a gorgeous adventuress who was the daughter of a stableman on a Kentucky horse farm; and Daisy Fellowes, whose fortune derived from sewing machines and who had the distinction of being one of the first people on record to alter her nose surgically.” the Duke and Duchess of Windsor at home with their precious pug dogs. The Duchess, the former Wallis Warfield Simpson, often appeared in her stylish best in public with a pug tucked under one arm. It became a fashion trend - to carry a dog around with you when away from home. Granted, the Windsors were despicable people, dining with Adolf Hitler in 1937 and hobnobbing with fellow Nazi sympathizers and British ex-pats Oswald Mosley and wife Diana Mitford. Nevertheless, the Duke and Duchess – and their fancy friends – obsessed with clothing, had tremendous style.

Adolf Hitler kisses the hand of the Duchess of Windsor as her husband the Duke looks on, admiringly. The Duke and Duchess of Windsor visited Germany in 1937 before WWII broke out across Europe. They were outspoken supporters of Nazi fascism and suspected of spying for Germany. At the beginning of the war, the Windsors were whisked out of France to safe haven in the Bahamas, where the Duke served out the war years as governor. There he could do Britain little harm - and he was less likely of being kidnapped by the Germans who were reportedly interested in installing him as a puppet king in a conquered Great Britain under German rule. Fashion designer Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel (French, 1883-1971) at Lido Beach in 1936 "Evening Dress," 1938. Gabrielle ("Coco") Chanel. Black Silk Net with Polychrome Sequins. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Special Exhibit: "Blithe Spirit: The Windsor Set" The decoration of sequined fireworks on this evening dress, which was worn by the Countess Madeleine de Montgomery to Lady Mendl's seventy-fifth birthday party in 1939, is a fitting climax to le beau monde of the 1930s. It was the end of an era when, on Sept. 1, 1939, Parisians heard an early-morning radio announcement from Herr Hitler in German, at once translated into French, that "as of this moment, we are at war with Poland." The thirties were over; the Second World War had begun. The Windsors were famous for their elegant Paris dinner parties, creating a demand for expensive clothes and jewels for them and their guests. Thus, the prewar years in France from 1935-1940 were rich in the decorative arts, putting trendy fashion designers front and center.

It was a time when Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel was “rethinking the suit” to allow for the way women really move and Elsa Schiaparelli* was designing lobster dresses with surrealist Salvador Dali.* Then Hitler invaded Poland and World War II shattered the fantasy world of endless cocktail parties and silk and organza gowns made to order. The Germans invaded and occupied France. Shockingly, Coco Chanel spent the war years living at the Ritz in Paris with a Nazi officer . After the war was over, Chanel was arrested by the free French for suspicion of collaborating with the Nazis. She purportedly offered this explanation for sleeping with the enemy: “Really, sir, a woman of my age cannot be expected to look at his passport if she has a chance of a lover.” It is generally believed that Winston Churchill intervened with the French government, convincing them to let his old friend Coco Chanel escape to Switzerland rather than be paraded through the streets of Paris with her head shaved like other female Nazi collaborators. Women accused of being Nazi collaborators are humiliated after the liberation of France, 1944. © Hulton-Deutsch Collection/Corbis Fast forward 19 years. It's November 22, 1963.

Jackie Kennedy,* in her pink Chanel suit and pillbox hat, is riding through Dallas in a motorcade just minutes before a sniper kills her husband, President John F. Kennedy Salvador Dalí grew a flamboyant moustache, waxed and up-turned, influenced by seventeenth-century Spanish master painter Diego Velázquez. The moustache became Dalí's trademark look. In 1953, Spanish-born Surrealist painter Salvador Dalí (1904-1989) wrote: “Every morning upon awakening, I experience a supreme pleasure: that of being Salvador Dalí, and I ask myself, wonderstruck, what prodigious thing will he do today, this Salvador Dalí….” Salvador Dalí found deep meaning in Jan Vermeer's painting, "The Lacemaker" (ca. 1669-70) In December 1955, that “prodigious thing” meant that he was to borrow a friend’s white Rolls Royce Phantom II, fill it to the roof with 500 kg of cauliflower, and drive it to the Sorbonne in Paris.

Then he would disembark and enter the school to give a lecture he’d impossibly titled, ‘Phenomenological Aspects of the Paranoiac Critical Method:’ “Some 2,000 ecstatic listeners were soon sharing Salvador’s Dalirium. Planting his elbows on a lecture table strewn with bread crumbs, Dalí blandly explained: “All emotion comes to me through the elbow.” Then he announced his latest finding in critical paranoia. The gamy meat of it: “Everything departs from the rhinoceros horn! Everything departs from [Dutch Master] Jan Vermeer’s The Lacemaker! Everything ends up in the cauliflower!” The rub, apologized Dalí, is that cauliflowers are too small to prove this theory conclusively.” (1) As Dalí’s fame grew, his stunts and outrageous pronouncements became more frequent. He was an endless self-promoter, grandiose and pompous. He felt impelled, he admitted, to accumulate millions of dollars. He loved money. To keep the contracts coming, he was determined to keep himself in the public eye. His art and behavior were designed to provoke a response.

Salvador Dalí's most famous painting, "The Persistence of Memory," 1931. His inspiration for the drooping timepieces came to him one night when he had a headache. His wife Gala had gone to the movies with friends while Dalí, ill, had stayed behind at home. He sat at the kitchen table for a long time, staring at the melting Camembert cheese. Before going to bed, he entered his studio and looked at the landscape he had been working on - and - Voila! - decided to add three melting watches. He delighted in playing the buffoon. While Dalí’s pranks were often funny, one was certainly dangerous. Once he donned a deep-sea diving suit before giving a lecture. The helmet was soundproof so no one could hear him. Dalí began to thrash about, flailing his arms soundlessly. The audience roared with laughter, thinking it was part of Dalí’s act. But he was suffocating inside the helmet. It was not until he almost fainted that he was rescued.

Accused of going too far, Dalí would often reply, “It’s the only place I ever wanted to go.” Sometimes his stunts were offensive, such as when he and wife Gala appeared at a New York costume party dressed as the Lindbergh baby and his kidnapper. Other spectacles bordered on the criminal, like when he discovered that his Bonwit Teller window display in Manhattan had been rearranged. He became so enraged that he hurled a bathtub through the plate glass window and crashed, with the tub, inside the store. Dalí created The Mae West Lips Sofa (1937) in the same shocking-pink color introduced by fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli. Dalí was endlessly creative in many genres other than painting.

He created jewelry, designed clothes (see my post: “ Elsa Schiaparelli: Shocking-Pink “) and furniture, painted sets for ballets and plays, wrote fiction, created window displays for department stores, and produced the dream sequence for director Alfred Hitchcock’s “Spellbound.” He recorded a TV ad for Lanvin chocolates, designed the Chupa Chups candy labels, and was interviewed on TV in 1958 by Mike Wallace – during which Dalí imperiously referred to himself in the third person. (1) TIME , Dec.

26, 1955 Posted in Elsa Schiaparelli , PEOPLE , Salvador Dali , tagged biographies of women , biographies of women designers , Cecil Beaton , Coco Chanel , Daisy Fellowes , Duchess of Windsor , Edward VIII of Great Britain , Elsa Schiaparelli , Elsa Schiaparelli fashion , Elsa Schiaparelli hot pink , Elsa Schiaparelli pink , Elsa Schiaparelli shocking pink , French fashion design , fuchsia , haute couture , Isaac Merritt Singer , Salvador Dali , Salvador Dali and the Lobster Telephone , Schiaparelli and the Lobster Dress , Schiaparelli and the shoe hat , the Duke of Windsor , Wallis Warfield Simpson on August 12, 2009 | 6 Comments » Italian-born fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli in the 1930s Between the two world wars, fashion design was dominated by two extraordinary pioneers, Gabrielle Chanel and Elsa Schiaparelli (1890-1973). Whereas Coco Chanel was a craftswoman who considered dressmaking a profession, Schiaparelli, on the other hand, regarded her work as art and herself as an artist.

Schiaparelli’s designs were heavily influenced by artists in the dada and surrealist movements, particularly by Salvador Dali. While Chanel’s clothes were known for their simplicity, Schiaparelli’s were known for their daring. “Shocking-pink” was Schiaparelli’s signature color. She described hot pink as “life-giving, like all the light and the birds and the fish in the world put together, a color of China and Peru but not of the West.” Schiaparelli shoe-hat which debuted in her Fall-Winter 1937-38 collection The designs Schiaparelli created in collaboration with Dali are among her best known. One of her most memorable designs created with Dali is known as the “shoe-hat” (shown here). Note that the hat is shaped like a woman’s high-heeled shoe, with the heel standing straight up and the toe tilted over the wearer’s forehead. The heel is of a shocking-pink color. This hat was worn by Singer sewing machine heiress Daisy Fellowes, among others. Daisy Fellowes was one of Schiaparelli’s best clients.

Fellowes was a French-American heiress with a taste for expensive jewels and clothes and a reputation for cutting remarks. “Though a footnote today, for nearly 50 years, Fellowes, the daughter of a French duke and granddaughter of the sewing-machine magnate Isaac Merritt Singer , was the trans-Atlantic fete set’s No. 1 bad girl.” She was also editor in chief of French Harper’s Bazaar, a philanthropist who donated her salary to an orphanage, and the author of a few sexy romance novels. a caricature of the American movie actress, the provocative Mae West (1893-1980) by Miguel Covarrubias, 1928, for the New Yorker magazine Among other jewels purchased at Cartier‘s shop at 13 rue de la Paix in Paris, Fellowes owned a stunning 17.27ct pink diamond called the Tête de Belier (Ram’s Head). It was Fellowes’ pink diamond that inspired the color known as shocking-pink or hot pink.

Elsa Schiaparelli took note of the diamond, using shocking pink for the box design of her 1937 perfume which she named “Shocking.” The packaging of the box, designed by Leonor Fini, was also notable for the bottle in the shape of a woman’s torso. The shape was inspired by another of Schiaparelli’s celebrity clients, the American screen actress Mae West. The Lobster Dress by Elsa Schiaparelli Another of the Schiaparelli/Dali designs is the iconic “Lobster Dress” which debuted in Schiaparelli’s Summer/Fall 1937 Collection. The Lobster dress is a simple white silk evening dress with a crimson waistband featuring a large lobster painted (by Dali) onto the skirt.It is rumored that Dali wanted to apply real mayonnaise to the lobster on the dress but that Schiaparelli objected. Dali’s lobster design for Schiaparelli was then interpreted into a fabric print by the leading silk designer Sache. It was famously worn by Wallis Warfield Simpson in a series of photographs by Cecil Beaton taken at the Château de Candé shortly before her marriage to Edward VIII.

(shown here) Wallis Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor (1895-1986), photo Cecil Beaton (1904-80). UK, early 20th century. Dali had been incorporating lobsters into his mixed media creations since 1934, most famously with “Lobster Telephone” (1936). "Lobster Telephone," by Salvador Dali, 1936 To see more of Schiaparelli’s fashion designs, click here . A modern room with touches of Schiaparelli pink in the two chairs and flowers in foreground Share this: Dalí-inspired interiors: designers are getting lippy | Homes and Property Loudmouths: the ultimate "In your face" interiors trend 1/12 Bocca sofa Luxuriously soft, the Bocca sofa by Italian furniture maker Gufram — now celebrating its 50th anniversary — also has that Dalí touch, in solid foam with a removable stretch cover. It’s widely copied, but find the original in three colours, including one model with a piercing, priced £5,995 in the emporium of top brands that is Chaplins .

2/12 Boca stool Perhaps the most famous face in design is that of Lina Cavalieri, the Italian operatic soprano whose enigmatic features inspired countless drawings fashioned into products in the last century by the Milanese artist Piero Fornasetti (1913-1988), including this Boca stool, which costs £800 from Amara . 3/12 Electric Lips A lippy collage made and photographed by New York artist Joanna McClure, which comes as a limited-edition print in various sizes from £120, at British online gallery Lumitrix . 4/12 Kiss Kiss mug So cute is the Kiss Kiss mug, handmade in fine bone china in Stoke-on-Trent and designed by a Potteries local, Denise O’Sullivan . It’s priced £15 5/12 Rume cushion Knitted in Bolivia from alpaca wool as soft as cashmere, this 50cm x 50cm cushion is designed in Denmark and costs £96 with a feather-filled pad at Rume , a website for “strong interior statements” run by Richard and Libby Baker who aim “to banish beige forever”.

Showroom at 54 Western Road, Hove, East Sussex. 6/12 Two-sided lips cushion Jimmie Martin’s two-sided lips cushions cost £95 for the 45cm square, and £130 for the 60cm square. Find them at the Jimmie Martin shop, 77 Kensington Church Street, W8. 7/12 Shine Shine Girl tray Contemporary home stuff from South Africa is the speciality at Porcupine Rocks , importer of this fun Shine Shine Girl tray. Priced £25. 8/12 Shine Shine Boy tray Shine Shine Boy tray. Priced £25 at Porcupine Rocks . 9/12 Head of a Woman A slash of red creates the lips in Picasso’s Head of a Woman cushion. Priced £85, it’s 45cm square, from a range at The Conran Shop . 10/12 Salvador Dalí lips Spain pouts for London as the celebrated Salvador Dalí lips sofa arrives at the new Clerkenwell showroom of BD Barcelona Design . Made from tough rotationally moulded plastic, the sofa has a romantic pedigree.

First it was part of a Thirties collage by Dalí, as the Surrealist artist depicted the face of Hollywood actress Mae West using wall paintings as eyes, a fireplace for her nose and the sofa in the shape of her rosebud lips. BD Barcelona Design co-founder Oscar Tusquets Blanca helped Dalí turn the painting into a room in 1972 for the artist’s new museum in Spain. Some 30 years later the sofa went into production, for indoors or out. Priced £2,131.20. 11/12 Fantasy shopping bag Designed in Denmark and made in Madagascar, this embroidered natural raffia Fantasy shopping bag comes in two sizes, priced £29.99 and £32.50 at online store Cloudberry Living . 12/12 Beechwood spoons In time for the wedding season, Sherrie Mead and Jackie Jackson at The Letteroom will engrave any name up to 12 letters on waxed beechwood spoons for the inclusive price of £14.95 a pair. The spoons are 33cm long.

Bright red lips have been in and out of fashion ever since screen siren Mae West first puckered up. Salvador Dali was famously so enamoured of 1930s Hollywood megastar that he built a sofa in the shape of her ruby mouth. The concept first appeared in Dali’s collage, The Face of Mae West (1935), and in 1972 the artist, with Oscar Tusquets, created it in 3D for the Mae West room at the Dalí Museum in Figueres. It went on to become an icon of sensuous modern design. But it wasn’t until the Nineties that normal folk could presume to park their rears on that pout when the sofa went into production by Bd Barcelona Design. Not just furniture, this is art: nine statement pieces for your home Now, perhaps taking inspiration from Dali’s lip service to Mae, Italian furniture maker Gufram have come up with a similarly lippy design. Plus, there are myriad means of adding a touch of pouting attitude to your interior - see the gallery above for more opportunities to fill your home with lips.

Follow us on Twitter @HomesProperty and Facebook More about: 1000+ images about The INIMITABLE Mae West on Pinterest | Brooches, Playwright and Lady Ruby, diamond, and pearl LIPS brooch by Salvador Dali, 1949 - inspired by Mae West - "Mae West's come-hither smile inspired this 1949 brooch. "Poets of the ages, of all lands, write of ruby lips and teeth like pearls." -Dali" See More

Question: In 1937, Salvador Dali designed a sofa in the shape of the lips of which famous Hollywood actress?
Answer: MAE WEST